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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26482534">they rush me (telling me i'm running out of time)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CC_Writes_Stuff/pseuds/CC_Writes_Stuff'>CC_Writes_Stuff</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Make It Hurt: Whumptober 2020 [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Assassination Attempt(s), Blood, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Claude von Riegan Backstory, Discrimination, F/M, Female My Unit | Byleth, Gen, Hurt, Kid Byleth, Kid Claude, Mercenary My Unit | Byleth, Mild Language, Minor Character Death, My Unit | Byleth &amp; Claude von Riegan Friendship, My Unit | Byleth Has Emotions, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash, Protective My Unit | Byleth, Xenophobia, no beta we die like Glenn, no clue what I'm doing really</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:34:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,699</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26482534</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CC_Writes_Stuff/pseuds/CC_Writes_Stuff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>there's a traitor in the palace</p><p>-</p><p>Written for Whumptober Day 9: For the Greater Good</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Claude von Riegan &amp; Original Character(s), My Unit | Byleth &amp; Claude von Riegan, My Unit | Byleth &amp; Original Character(s), My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Make It Hurt: Whumptober 2020 [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1915390</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>they rush me (telling me i'm running out of time)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>no clue what the hell this is tbh. but it's backstory. take it</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Fuck. They were trapped.</p><p>Byleth cursed as she threw the dagger, moonlight bouncing off the silver blade as it flew straight towards her target. Like a wolf pouncing on its target, the blade embedded itself deep into the throat of one of their attackers. A gurgled cry escaped him, and he fell to his knees, but Byleth knew it wouldn’t be enough. Not when there were so many others to fight.</p><p>“Give it up, Eisner,” a deep voice came, a deep voice that Byleth recognized, and she cursed herself for not seeing it sooner. It was so obvious, looking at it now, so how in the seven hells did she not see it sooner? If she had, they wouldn't be in this situation, and Karim and Khalid and Layla wouldn't be in danger. They'd be safe. “Stand down, and we won’t harm you.”</p><p>“It’s not my safety I’m worried about,” Byleth said, positioning her sword in front of her, heat dancing in her fingertips and swirling in a light ball inside her chest, a warm flicker of flame. Quickly, she spared a glance over her shoulder at the three people behind her, meeting their eyes for a second, then looked back to the voice in front of her. “The moment I stand down, you’re going to kill them. I won’t let that happen.”</p><p>“Why do you care? A Fodlander like you has no place in Almyran politics.”</p><p>“This isn’t politics,” Byleth said, keeping her voice steady as she sized up her enemies. Five people, including Maalik. She might be able to take them on, but it wouldn’t be easy. It would be best to just fight to let Khalid, Layla, and Karim get away. But Karim was sick - that was what drew them here in the first place. She would have to stall, and stall good - she didn’t know how long it would take for the guards to get to them. “This is assassination, plain and simple. And Khalid and Layla and Karim are my friends - I won’t let you hurt them.”</p><p>“Byleth, you can’t- there’s too many of them,” Layla said, her voice small and quiet and shaking, too loud in the silence of the night. It bounced off the walls, settling deep into the thickness of the air, and flickered with the casted amber of the candlelight. “You… you gotta run. We’ll… we’ll be okay. I promise. Just… just run, please!”</p><p>"Please, Byleth. Just go. I don't want you to get hurt," Khalid added, a near plea, but she wouldn't. She would not leave them at the mercy of Maalik's betrayal. She made a promise to them, and she would keep that promise no matter what.</p><p>“I’m not,” Byleth said, squaring her shoulders. “I’m not leaving you guys behind.”</p><p>“That’s going to be your downfall, you know, Miss Eisner,” Maalik said, and even in the dark, Byleth could still picture the other man’s sneer. It was too crooked, too tilted, for a royal. “Little Layla is right - it’s better to just run, isn’t it?”</p><p>Hypocritical bastard.</p><p>Byleth didn’t respond, eyes darting around and trying to figure out who to hit first, if she should go for Maalik first or take down the hired hands he had with him. The heat in her hands rose, spreading out through her arms, warm and comforting against the cold of the Almyran nights and Maalik’s betrayal.</p><p>“Qasim, why are you doing this?” A raspy voice asked from behind Byleth, followed by wet coughing that grated against Byleth's ears like sand in her hand. “What do you hope to accomplish, killing us here? We are no threat to your throne, your inheritance.”</p><p>“I’m getting rid of the weak, of the likes of you and Khalid and Layla and that woman that father replaced mother with,” Maalik said, venom dripping from his voice. Byleth narrowed her eyes. “We don’t need half-breeds like you in our palace.”</p><p>“Why do you hate us? What did we ever do to you?” Karim asked, and even without seeing him, Byleth could picture the dissapointment, the shine of his eyes, in her mind. “Why do you hate us simply for exi-”</p><p>
  <em>Swish.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Tmp tmp.</em>
</p><p>“Byleth!”</p><p>At the sound of her name, Byleth whirled, but something slammed into her back Something hard and heavy, sending her crashing to the ground and knocking her knees and left elbow against the ground. She groaned, shaking her head, and looked to the side. Ocean blue eyes widened when she saw what happened.</p><p>Khalid was on the ground just next to her, and there was something with a knife that gleamed in the candlelight standing just above him. Behind the shadow, the curtains fluttered gently from wind that had not come from the night sky.</p><p>“Brother!”</p><p>“Khalid!”</p><p>Byleth saw red, felt the heat in her arms spreading upwards to her shoulders, and she stood, Khalid’s head dropping onto her foot. Before the attacker could move to strike again, she pounced. With all the force she could muster up, she swung, the blade weightless and deadly in her hands. The end of it sunk and tore through flesh, and then there was a scream, and Byleth kept the momentum up, before drawing it back. She felt blood splatter onto her face as the assassin fell. Didn’t bother to wipe it off.</p><p>“Khalid!” Layla shouted again, running over to her older brother. She knelt down next to him, and Byleth glanced down. In the candlelight, she could see red, spreading out from a torn line in his shirt on his midway up his torso, under his ribs. Almost exactly the way it had been when she first met the boy eight months ago, in the forest.</p><p>Gritting her teeth, she turned to face Maalik, and could see the crooked smile on his face, the smile that was so different from the warmth and brightness and kindness of the kids behind her. It was unlike the heat, the anger, she felt rolling through her body in waves, pulsing at the edge of her skin. It was crooked, cold, the smile of a con man and assassins and the greedy, sharp enough to cut diamonds and pierce flesh.</p><p>“How noble, Khalid,” Maalik sneered, his voice dripping with condescension. “Taking the hit to protect your little girlfriend. I suppose that righteous heart of yours will be your downfall, hmm?”</p><p>“Fuck you,” Karim rasped, before coughing wetly again. It made the hair on Byleth’s arms rise like hackles on a cat.</p><p>“At… least I… have a heart,” Khalid rasped out too, which also ended in a bout of coughing.</p><p>The heat that Byleth felt in her veins grew hotter, tingling, and dancing at the edge of her fingertips and swirling around in her chest, where her heartbeat should be. It was something she hadn’t felt before. But it was there, angry and alive, tainting the edges of her vision blood red. She wanted to unleash it on Maalik, on his hired hands, on anyone who dared to hurt her friends, the first friends she ever had, and it seemed to swirl around her body in response in a rush.</p><p>“You’re going to pay for that.” Even her own voice felt foregin, strange in her mouth, like Byleth was hearing it from someplace else, someone else that was not herself. And yet the words came, and she intended to make good on them.</p><p>Maalik stepped forward, the heel of his steel ax resting on his shoulder, amber eyes glinting dark and shadowy against the candlelight. He was like a hunter, a wolf, waiting for the kill. Dangerous, silent, deadly. But she was Byleth Eisner, daughter of the Blade Breaker, and she would not cower to a man of his personality.</p><p>“What are you going to do about it, Miss Eisner? You are outnumbered here, and the only two other people who may be able to pick up a blade are out of commission,” Maalik said, and Byleth could hear the victory curling at the edge of his voice, in the smile and posture. Convinced that this was his win, that he’d kill all of them and Tiana and do what? She didn’t know. She didn't think that she could know, or understand.</p><p>“I’ll make you a deal, though - surrender now, and I might help out my dear half-mutt brothers. A cure for Karim’s illness-” Like a magician brandishing a card, Maalik reached into his pocket and pulled out a small vial filled with a dark liquid- “And healing for Khalid’s wound.”</p><p><em>The wound he took defending you,</em> went unsaid, but Byleth could still hear it. It was salt in the wound, a dagger digging into her chest, and she grit her teeth together. It was a lie, too, an obvious one - he had wanted Khalid and Layla and Karim gone for as long as Byleth could remember him. The words were glass, easy to shatter, and shatter they would. He would not heal them or offer them safety.</p><p>“Don’t trust… him, Byleth. It’s… it’s a con,” Khalid said. His voice was too shaky, too weak, reverberating in her bones. “A game. And he’s… he’s rigging it so he… so he can win.”</p><p>Wordlessly, she sheathed her sword and raised her hands, forcing the heat out as she recalled the way Antone would with his magic, with the flames he so skillfully wielded in battle. It spread out from her core, down her hands, blazing gold and ruby as it raced down her arms. The warmth burst forth from her hands in flames, bright in the dark of light as it raced towards Maalik and his hired hands. And in the light after, Byleth could’ve sworn she saw something in her vision, something golden in the air resembling some odd flame. But maybe it was just her imagination, because it was there and then gone in a flicker of sparkles.</p><p>It raced out just as quick as the warmth did, leaving scorched earth and something cold behind in her chest in its wake. A coldness that was different than the cold of Almyran nights or wary eyes or Faerghus winters, something that went deeper than the scope of a human heart.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>
  <a href="https://ccwritesstuff.tumblr.com/">I Have a Tumblr!</a>
</p></blockquote></div></div>
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